Fox News Puts Karl Rove on the Bench

The post-election soul searching going on inside the Republican Party is taking place inside Fox News as well. Fox News chief Roger Ailes, a canny marketer and protector of his network’s brand, has been taking steps since November to reposition Fox in the post-election media environment, freshening story lines — and in some cases, changing the characters. According to multiple Fox sources, Ailes has issued a new directive to his staff: He wants the faces associated with the election off the air — for now. For Karl Rove and Dick Morris — a pair of pundits perhaps most closely aligned with Fox’s anti-Obama campaign — Ailes’s orders mean new rules.

Fox News chief Roger Ailes, a canny marketer and protector of his network’s brand, has been taking steps since November to reposition Fox in the post-election media environment, freshening story lines — and in some cases, changing the characters.

He'll have a hard time getting rid of himself. Rupert will have to do it.

He'll have a hard time getting rid of himself. Rupert will have to do it.

He might not need to go. He should survive if he can make some decent changes. The test will be how he handles things when wingnuts scream after being told the sky is blue after Rush Limbaugh told them it was purple.

As for Karl Rove, Alies's actions were predictable. Rove publicly accused the network's "call desk" of getting Ohio wrong and then was proven wrong himself. A mistake of that magnitude cannot be overlooked and Rove's got to have it made very clear to him that he can never do that sort of thing again.